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The Smallest Corner

Where: Kamakura, Japan

When: July 2009

Camera: Canon Powershot A550

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A small city, a small street, a small corner beside a shop. What do you find there? In the United States I would expect maybe beer bottles and cigarette butts, maybe a trash can, maybe, at best, a potted plant or a bit of a store window.

Instead, in this little corner of Kamakura, about four square feet of ground space, there is a lovely cabinet displaying some art, some ubiquitous and frighteningly realistic Japanese plastic food models for the restaurant behind, and the smallest bit of landscaping I think I’ve ever seen. The ground cuts away swiftly into a tiny pond, and a tiny tree rises above.

I almost don’t know which impresses me more: the scale, or the flawless blending of practical, artistic, and introduced natural beauty.